Ancient greece the kings essay

Anything from complete nakedness to casual body covering was a lifestyle component from prehistoric times through the Greco-Roman civilizations and into part of the Middle Ages. Even today, in various remote areas of the warmer climes, naked societies persist as primitive tribes whose members do not wear clothes.

During the Babylonian era Jews had greater opportunities to come into contact with a highly developed banking tradition and to participate in credit operations. The use of Greek terms indicates a strong Hellenistic influence on the establishment of banking.

In Babylonia, Jews engaged in financial transactions: However, talmudic references show that the standards of an agrarian economy were still dominant and therefore gamblers and usurers were not thought trustworthy witnesses see e.

Another Alexandrian Jew was treasurer to Candace, queen of Ethiopia. Middle Ages THE CALIPHATE With the rapid development of city life and commerce in the caliphate of Baghdad from the late eighth century and the transition of the majority of Jews under caliphate rule from agriculture and a village environment to the cities, banking became one of the occupations of some upper-class Jews, especially in Baghdad and later under the Fatimids from in Egypt.

This Jahbadhiyya, as it was called, was a form of banking based on the savings and economic activities of the whole Jewish merchant class and not only on the fortunes of the very rich: The vast sums at the disposal of these Jewish bankers and their relative immunity from confiscation by the autocratic authorities both tend to confirm that these Jewish "court bankers" from the beginning of the tenth century onward were well-known to their Muslim debtors as a kind of "deposit banker" for Jewish merchants.

The responsa of this period show a highly developed money economy existing before the First and Second Crusades.

With the disappearance of the Syrians and Greeks from Europe in the seventh century, the Jewish merchants were able to expand. Within the administration of the Merovingian kings from Jews possibly farmed taxes or advanced money on revenues to high officials; according to Gregory of Tours c.

During the Carolingian period from the mid-eighth centuryJews settled in the Rhineland again as they had done during the Roman Empire — some of them lending money on pledges or giving money to merchants in a kind of commenda partnership.

Archbishop Anno of Cologne d.

In France, England up toGermany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and northern and central Italy, Jews had to turn to loan-banking on a larger or smaller scale in order to make a living. The word judaizare became identical with "taking interest.

However, there is little data to suggest that Jewish banking transactions were on a large scale even in the 13th century, but there is evidence that the bishop of Basle had debts with Basle Jews and that various monasteries had Jewish creditors.

Banking and Bankers

The transition from a natural economy to a money economy in the course of the "commercial revolution," and the stabilization of territorial principalities opened new possibilities for Jewish banking activity, especially in the Rhineland and in southern Germany.

The most important banking transaction in the first half of the 14th century went through the hands of Vivelin the Red, who transmitted 61, florins in gold which King Edward III of England paid to Baldwin of Trier for becoming allied with him against France.

Muskin and Jacob Daniels served the archbishop of Trier in the administration of his finances; during the first half of the 14th century, Daniels was probably the most important Jewish banker of the Rhineland.

He was followed in the service of the archbishop by his son-in-law Michael. At the same time Abraham von Kreuznach at Bingen had a similar position with the archbishop of Mainz.

Gottschalk von Recklinghausen and his company was another group on the lower Rhine. Such banking activity is recorded in other parts of Central Europe as far as Silesia. Moneychanging and coinage privileges were often combined with moneylending, and Jews were frequently the sole agents arranging loans.

From the first half of the 12th century moneychanging as a special form of banking is supported by documentary evidence. To spread the risk, partnerships of between two and ten persons were formed.

As security, custom at first recognized mainly pledges, but from the middle of the 13th century the letter of credit came into use, though princess till preferred to pledge jewels. Often, instead of a pawn, bail was given by several persons.Read and explore the History of the Ancient Greek World from the Neolithic to the Classical alphabetnyc.comng important topics, such as Art and Architecture, Mythology, Wars, Culture and Society, Poetry, Olympics, History Periods, Philosophy, Playwrights, Kings and Rulers of Ancient Greece.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus (cc BCE): Greek researcher, often called the world's first historian. In The Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid Empire under its kings Cyrus the Great (r), Cambyses (r), and Darius I the Great (r), culminating in Xerxes' expedition to Greece ( BCE), which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and.